I think we are all familiar with the benefits of mapping all the rail routes live and abandoned in your are as pedestrian bug out routes. Rail tracks always follow the flattest routes so make getting out of Dodge on foot generally easier. BUT there is ONE negative to rail lines and that is if you live to close to a live Freight Carrying line. If your home is within a hundred meters of a rail track its often prudent to try and find out what traffic it carries. Minerals, Parcels, aggregates etc are one thing, but oil, gas, petrol, methanol, fertiliser trains are another because as seen with this video if it falls off the track the effects can be devastating
http://news.sky.com/story/1428796/oil-train-blast-like-atomic-bomb-went-off
http://news.sky.com/story/1428796/oil-train-blast-like-atomic-bomb-went-off